Hot-dog Vendor Doesn`t Relish Fight To Stay Open

A steady rain is falling and Barbara Grabowski is loading mustard and onions onto a hot dog from the back of her stainless steel pushcart.

In a noisy testament to either her popularity or culinary success, truckers direct short blasts from their air horns in her direction as they race by.

``I know most of them by name,`` Grabowski says of the truck drivers. ``And I know the rest by what they eat.``

Grabowski has been selling kosher and regular hot dogs from her cart on a vacant lot at 5730 North State Road 7 for 3 1/2 years. She can`t imagine doing anything else.

Now she has learned that Coconut Creek wants her to take her trade elsewhere.

Grabowski doesn`t relish the idea and she`s taken the city to court for the right to keep her hot-dog stand open.

The way Grabowski sees it, she`s fighting for more than her livelihood.

She`s protecting an American institution.

``What`s more American than the hot dog?`` Grabowski asks. ``If they tried to do this in New York City, they`d have a war on their hands.``

Grabowski`s attorney, Fred Goldstein, filed suit against Coconut Creek in federal court last week, filing for an injunction and seeking to overturn an ordinance that he said denies his client her constitutional right to earn a living.

Goldstein said Grabowski received a registered letter from Coconut Creek in early September. The letter said Grabowski`s license to operate her hot-dog stand in the shadow of the Sawgrass Expressway would expire Oct. 1 and was not renewable.

The letter explained that when the spot of land from which she sells her hot dogs was annexed by the city in June of 1983 she was given a two-year grace period to conform to the city code for ``commercial zoning districts.`` That meant an enclosed hot-dog stand.

Grabowski doesn`t own the property, but she said she does have permission from the owner to use the spot for parking her cart.

The grace period, according to the letter, expired June 1.

``Asking her to have an enclosed building is clearly selective enforcement,`` Goldstein said. He said Coconut Creek also should close its gas stations and its plant nurseries if the city is concerned with keeping all businesses within closed buildings.

Goldstein also has problems with the city`s interpretation of the annexation law.

``I have a copy of the annexation law,`` Goldstein said. ``It doesn`t say anything about zoning. She ought to be grandfathered in.``

Briefly, ``grandfathering`` allows businesses and residences to exist as they were before an area is annexed by a city, despite any ordinances the city might have.

Coconut Creek made two other errors, Goldstein said. First, the letter said his client was given notice at the time of annexation to build within the two- year grace period, or else. That`s false, Goldstein said. No one told Grabowski anything, he said. In addition, the letter said her license would expire Oct. 1. That`s wrong, he said. It actually will expire Oct. 24.

Goldstein said the first shot in this battle for Grabowski`s hot dogs was fired by Coconut Creek City Manager Dennis Mele.

Just before a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Sawgrass Expressway in Coconut Creek two years ago, Goldstein said Mele spotted his client selling hot dogs from her usual spot.

``All of the vendors we know have been notified,`` Mele said. It`s just a zoning issue. We have a peddler and vendors` ordinance that doesn`t allow that kind of activity.``